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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25386274">Six Times the Universe Fucked up and how the Fakes Handle it</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/UNICORNZWAG/pseuds/UNICORNZWAG'>UNICORNZWAG</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Grand Theft Auto V, Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ableism, Ableist Language, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon-Typical Violence, Fake AH Crew, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Internalized Homophobia, Multi, Pre-Fake AH Crew, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Trans Female Character, Transphobia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 11:53:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,696</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25386274</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/UNICORNZWAG/pseuds/UNICORNZWAG</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes the universe fucks up, but if we’re smart enough, we can undo what it has done to us. </p><p>Soulmates are an imperfect system. People liked to believe that the name or names on your wrist are your destiny, but that is not always true.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gavin Free/Dan Gruchy, Jack Pattillo/Geoff Ramsey, Jeremy Dooley/Gavin Free/Ryan Haywood/Michael Jones/Jack Pattillo/Geoff Ramsey</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Six Times the Universe Fucked up and how the Fakes Handle it</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Sometimes the universe fucks up, but if we’re smart enough, we can undo what it has done to us. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Soulmates are an imperfect system. People liked to believe that the name or names on your wrist are your destiny, but that is not always true. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>1.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Geoff grew up thinking soulmates meant nothing. He saw his parents act like the perfect couple in public, but yell and fight behind closed doors. He saw the violence, the absolute </span>
  <em>
    <span>hatred</span>
  </em>
  <span> they had for each other that they could seemingly just turn off when there were others around. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Geoff saw the bruises his mom tried to hide. He saw the glares and heard the screams. He heard the door slam one night and never saw her again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His experience with soulmates was a show. Your mark was nothing except a performance piece if you asked Geoff. When his finally showed up on his fifteenth birthday, he barely glanced at it. One name, simply written, Jack. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When he finally ran away from his father, from the house where there was never dinner on the table but a dozen bottles of jack in the cabinet, he made a joke to himself. That was his soulmate. The Jack Daniels that burned his throat and made him forget all the abuse he’d endured. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He smiled for real for the first time in a while. Not the fake smile that he learned from his parents at a young age, a real, maybe a little bit crazy, smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When he started getting into crime, there was a system. Every person named Jack he met got a bullet in the back of the skull. If he did meet his soulmate, he wasn’t going to fall into the trap of thinking he loved them, just for it to fall apart. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That is until he met Wheels. He didn’t learn that her name was Jack for months. He had fallen so deeply in love with her doing jobs, robberies, heists, making chaos of their own variety. When he was on the road with her, she controlled everything. Not just the vehicle or the streets: she owned his heart in a way he had promised himself no one ever would. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was after they had first slept together that he muttered, “Geoff Ramsey, nice to meet ya,” with a lazy grin. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She responded simply, “Jack.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Geoff jolted. This couldn’t be real. He showed her his wrist and couldn’t decide how to feel when she showed him hers. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>2.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jack grew up in a normal family: Two parents, soulmates who loved each other, A couple siblings who were a little too much older than her to really be called friends, and the fat cat who would never leave her well enough alone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She knew early on that she was different. Being called Jack never bothered her, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span>, </span>
  <em>
    <span>my son, Mr. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Patillo. Those were problems. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She gravitated towards female friends. She started growing her hair out in the fifth grade. She knew she was different and knew that was a problem. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She could never tell her parents. They were a happy, soulmate couple who went to Sunday service and feared the wrath of God. She’d be on the streets in a second. So she kept quiet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On her fifteenth birthday, she wasn’t surprised when no name showed up. The dysphoria and depression were already there. This just proved that she was right. She was so different that she was broken. She didn’t deserve love and nobody would ever love her back. She would be alone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On her eighteenth birthday, she told her parents she was a woman. As expected, they told her she was no longer welcome. They said if she </span>
  <em>
    <span>changed her mind</span>
  </em>
  <span> she could come home. She picked up and made her way to Los Santos, falling in with one of the up and coming gangs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She proved herself in street races and with her wit. She was respected quickly. Men who came in contact with her learned quickly that shit talking her woman hood or her transness got them smeared on the bottom of her tires, shredded with the blades of her chopper, or simply her bullet in their skull. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After meeting Grif, things fell into place. He was the first other person to stand up for her against people like that. She didn’t feel so alone anymore. The smile that lit up his face with a machine gun tearing holes in cop cars and the cackle that burst from his lips made butterflies light up her stomach. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t fall in love with him, though. He surely had a soulmate out there. And here she was, broken, wrong body, no name on her wrist, barely a person in society’s eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So, after a night of drinking in which they fell into bed together, he told her his name, Geoff. She felt numb, her whole body buzzing with happiness. She didn’t know what it was or what it meant. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Geoff showed her his arm, with her own name etched onto the skin in her handwriting. He was grinning brighter than she had ever seen. She had never felt more in love, but her smile faltered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He backtracked, thinking he had overstepped, but she just showed him empty skin. Nothingness that existed where her soul mark should be. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He brushed over the skin gently, then kissed her wrist. He whispered, “I felt a connection, Jack. I think it’s supposed to be you, and I love you even if it’s not.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She felt the same way, but was much more hesitant. There were so many what ifs. What if Geoff met his </span>
  <em>
    <span>real</span>
  </em>
  <span> soulmate? What if the feeling she had was just excitement, not love? What if she was mistaking her feelings? What if Geoff was just caught up in the moment? How could anyone love someone as broken as her? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They started off slowly, but Geoff began to pull her out of her shell, undo some of the damage her own psyche had done to her. And Jack taught Geoff that love didn’t have to be violent. That it wasn’t fake. That it could be something tangible. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>They became unstoppable in the crime world, and started to build a crew. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>3.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>James Ryan Haywood was a mama’s boy. He grew up with no one but her and he loved her as such. He also grew up terrified of soulmates. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He saw how broken his mama was when his papa passed away. She would sit on the porch for hours, watching the sun rise and then set. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She took care of him, but was never really there emotionally. Her love was fully attached to someone who was no longer there. The ink on her skin faded. Ryan stopped going by James, his father’s name, to try and make her feel a little better. To take some of her pain away. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It didn’t work. Ryan hoped that he never had to meet his soulmate because then they couldn’t break him like his mama was broken. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At fourteen, he got home from school and found his mama. She was gone. She couldn’t live without her partner. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ryan knew he shouldn’t blame himself, but he did. He wasn’t enough to keep her happy and alive. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He jumped around from family member to family member until he finally ran away at sixteen. His fifteenth birthday had passed and he was determined not to look at his soul mark. So he didn’t. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He had a friend of a friend tattoo a black band over it. He couldn’t see it and he would never know whose name it had been. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If they found him, he could move on without the hurt. He had heard that you feel some type of way when you meet your soulmate. Like fireworks. His mama had said it all the time. But without the name on his wrist, he would never be sure.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At twenty he found himself in a world of crime in the underbelly of the most corrupt city in the United States, Los Santos. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The City of Saints, as it was called was far from it. Ryan had a reputation. He never showed his face, barely spoke, and had a 100% success rate. None of his targets got away and he always got what he was paid for. When he got a call from the up and comer, KingPin, he had to accept. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He knew the man’s work, running with the Roosters before moving on to what he hoped would be bigger and better things. A crew behind him would give Ryan just enough of a security blanket to relax a bit. He met with KingPin and Wheels. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They worked in perfect harmony. Their jobs went flawlessly for quite some time. The Fakes were beginning to grow in power and size. They were beginning to grow on Ryan too. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Watching Jack and Geoff, as he learned their names were, was like watching poetry in motion. The perfect team. The best driver in the country and perhaps the smartest dirty businessman on the west coast. Not to mention, Geoff looked good as hell in a suit with a bit of blood splatter.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ryan knew he was falling for them, but he also had self control. It would take more of a push than his kindergarten-esque crush for him to make a move. </span>
</p><p> </p><ol>

</ol><p>
  <span>Gavin grew up in love with the idea of love. His parents were high class, business people. They had very little time for him. When they did spend time with him, it was the highlight of his week (or month in some cases). </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He didn’t think soul mates were a huge deal. He saw other people’s names on his parents’ wrists and thought nothing of it. People don’t always have to marry their soulmates. What if it takes too long to meet them or you just don’t love them. Gavin believed that you choose who you love.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That is, until his fifteenth birthday. His best mate, Dan was over for the night. They waited up, counting the hours and eating junk food until the name appeared. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Daniel</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gavin felt butterflies in his stomach. He felt the fireworks he had always read about and shyly looked at his best friend. Dan’s jaw was dropped and he blushed in turn. Gavin asked about the feeling he was having, the feeling he was sure was meeting his soulmate. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dan said he felt excited, but maybe it wasn’t too strong because he didn’t have his mark yet. They messed around and had a laugh, saying they were real boyfriends now. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A month later, they were up late again waiting for Dan’s mark to appear. Both nervous and excited. When it did… it didn’t say Gav. It said Samantha. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dan said he didn’t care, that he still wanted to be with Gavin. They dated for another two years. That ended the moment Dan met Samantha. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They had been on a date, the server introduced herself and Gavin could just see the stars in Dan’s eyes. He really thought that soulmates didn’t matter, that you should be able to choose. He was wrong this time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dan apologized and cried when he broke up with Gavin a week later. Gavin was already ready with his things packed and a plane ticket to Los Santos. He had made a name for himself hacking already, so it wouldn’t take long to pick it up in a new place. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He got on the Fake’s radar quickly. He helped them run heists remotely at first, then finally, after months in person. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He could feel himself falling in love again and hated it. They’d just find their soulmates if they hadn’t already and leave him in the dust, just like his own soulmate had. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He tried to let that love make him a better member of the Fake family. It worked, but something had to give eventually. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It did. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The straw that broke the camel’s back was named Michael. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>5.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Michael learned to be good young. Do what the priest says, Michael. Speak when spoken to, Michael. Did you say your prayers before bed, Michael?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was the perfect child of God, but he didn’t feel like it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even in primary school, when the other boys would have crushes, it was always on girls. Michael liked one or two girls, they were his friends after all. He didn’t understand why he got butterflies in his stomach looking at some of his boy friends. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He knew better. That was a sin. He asked about it one day in his religion class. The nun running the class was not happy. She harped on these people choosing not to give God a union where they would create more members of the church, and Michael got a ruler to the wrist and a new name at school for it, fag. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>By fifteen, Michael had been in one too many fights when people called him what he hated most. He knew somewhere deep down that he liked guys, but he would deny it till his dying breath. Until his name showed up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Or… names? Could someone have more than one name. He hadn’t heard much about it, but supposed it could be true. Not everyone was the same. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He looked down by flashlight, in the darkness of his room and read two names. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Geoff </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>Gavin.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Two men’s names. Michael prayed. He prayed on his knees for his soul to be saved until his mom came in the next morning to wake him up for school. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She smiled at him when she saw him praying and asked if he was blessing his beautiful soulmate. His eyes were rimmed red when he turned to look at her. She demanded to see his name. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She screamed for her husband. Praying and calling out to God to save her child. Michael’s father threw him down the stairs. Before the day was out, the skin where the names had shown was burnt off and cleansed multiple times with holy water. Michael was sent to bed without dinner, sobbing. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He left that night and got as far away from Jersey as he could. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In Los Santos he started off pick pocketing and playing with fire. After a year or two he was making explosives to rob basically wherever he wanted until he got a call from the Fakes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He became their boom man, their muscle, and their wild child. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He became fast friends with Golden Boy. They were a dynamic duo you could say. Team Nice Dynamite would rob you blind and leave you with nothing but rubble. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Michael learned everyone’s names, he ran away for two weeks. When he finally came back, he had leveled 30 square miles of desert testing out new explosives and gotten in about a dozen fist fights. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He sat down with them, first Gavin, then Geoff and told them about his childhood, his names, everything. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gavin was hesitant. He said he would try 100%, but told Michael his own story, that he was broken. Micahel was determined to convince him he wasn’t. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Geoff said he felt similarly, but that he would never leave Jack. The relationships in the Fakes started to change after that. Things got more open. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The four way relationship between Gavin, Michael, Jack, and Geoff was wobbly, but worked. Jack branched out, feeling like she wasn’t fully a part of what the other three had. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She started flirting with Ryan, who still didn’t want to make a full connection yet, even if, deep down, he knew he already had. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everything came together like a puzzle when Jeremy showed up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>6.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jeremy’s childhood was perhaps the most normal. Two parents who loved each other and their kids. They got in fights, but hey that’s what people did. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They were a bit below their means, but they managed. His parents both worked long hours, but tried to find the time to spend with the family. There was always dinner on the table even if breakfast and lunch came free from school. The family always got one collective present at Christmas. One year it was a vacuum and none of the kids complained, just happy they could live a bit better. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jeremy expected a normal life, name on his wrist at fifteen and someday, he’d find that special someone. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was a bit of a rebel. Sticky fingers his signature. People learned at school quickly, don’t piss off Jeremy. Don’t make fun of his siblings. Don’t make fun of his family. His clothes were always a bit too big, hand me downs from his older brothers. He was short, his sister was shorter, and his littlest brother had a learning disability. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>You talked shit about any of it, and something of yours would disappear. Your gameboy? Gone the day after you call Little Dooley the r-word. Your phone? Missing when you said Jeremy was swimming in his clothes. Your drugs? No trace after you hit on Jeremy’s little sister and didn’t wanna take no for an answer. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jeremy was good. And he was never caught. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His fifteenth birthday came and went. He was shocked, but not upset to see not one, two, or even three, but five names on his wrist. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He took some shit for it. And took shit from those kids just as quick.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When he realized he’d never pay for college, he decided at eighteen that he would move to Los Santos. Everyone could use a cat burglar. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It took him three years there. Working, making connections, learning the city and weapons and fighting before the Fakes offered him a job. He accepted in a heartbeat. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When he heard their names, he knew it was destiny. He showed them his arm. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Things smoothed out after a few months. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Geoff was so happy. He knew his soul mark tied him to Jack forever, even if she didn’t have one to match. He loved Michael so much, especially seeing his own name on someone’s wrist. He adored Jeremy and just how much love he had to give. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He learned better than his childhood taught him, a soul mark meant something, but it wasn’t everything. He loved each of his partners the same, whatever showed on any of their skin. He knew that love was not violent or painful. It was beautiful. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jack finally belonged. She knew that she had no name on her wrist, but she saw herself on others and took it as a sign. A sign that she couldn’t be entirely broken. She fell for her boys slowly at first, then all at once. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She would die for her family and wouldn’t have it any other way. Sometimes she still feels broken, but there are so many arms now to put her back together that it never lasts for long. She is madly in love and is grateful for it every day. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ryan was tired. Tired of pretending. He loved them all so much that he would die for them in a heartbeat. He would and has killed for each and every one of them and would do it again and again. He figured if he already fell this far, might as well let them love him back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Sometimes he regrets not being able to see his names. He’s still scared of the idea of soulmates. But sometimes, as he’s holding one of his lovers, he’ll imagine their name written into his skin and smile. Ryan lets himself be loved and loves back just as fiercely. He’s still terrified what would happen if he loses any of them, but he knows at least there are six of them. They’ll be able to hold each other up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gavin still misses Dan. They talk from time to time and have been able to become friends again, but he knows they weren’t meant to be, no matter what his arm says. He is still just as in love with the idea of love as he was when he was young, and now he’s certain that what’s on your wrist doesn’t matter one bit. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He loves each of his partners (he calls them soulmates in his head, but that makes Ryan and Jack uncomfortable so he’d never say it out loud). He feels so cherished. Even when he’s being ridiculous they still love him the same. Even when they do the absolute dumbest things in the field and he is terrified from his perch behind the screen, he couldn’t love them less. They are his family forever. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Michael still prays every night, but now he prays that God will give him the strength and power to protect the ones he loves. He looks at the scarred skin on his wrist with regret every now and then. It has taken years to unlearn the self-hatred he had, but Jack helps. They all help. They shower him with love and praise and tell him that he is valid. Eventually he starts to believe it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He has learned to be a bad boy instead of a good boy. The boy who did what he was told and did everything right is gone. Now if someone called him the f slur, he’d shoot them in the face. Or, more likely someone else would first. He is so proud to be part of a family that protects each other as fiercely as they love each other. He wouldn’t give them up for anything. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jeremy has everything he ever wanted. He still sends money back home every month and visits every once in a while, but he’s much happier where he is. He met the loves of his life, the names he cherished for so long are names that roll off his tongue so often they sound like a mantra. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’s doing what he loves. He’s with his soul mates. He brought them together. And he’s so proud of it. He is still just as protective as he always was. Just now, his family has doubled in size and he wouldn’t have it any other way. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Fuck the universe. The Fakes have made their own family, and the City of Saints is on its knees because of it. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for the read! I'd love to hear from you. &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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